The Coming Disaster (3)
The Bekros Kingdom was the smallest of the ten island kingdoms.
About two million people lived on the island; fishing was well developed and the southern region had an easy, leisurely air.
And in Arar Village on the island's southeast, Shirone woke from sleep in a pleasant mood.
"Oo—"
--- th—
The warm sunlight and the cool sound of the waves seemed to breathe life back into his tired body.
"I slept really well."
At that murmured moment, Shirone suddenly realized something and sat bolt upright.
"What the—!"
He didn't know what was wrong.
"What the hell happened?!"
He pushed off the bed and opened the door. The dark-skinned children stopped their ball game and waved.
"Shirone hyung, you're up?"
The foaming sea cleared his head at a glance, but his thoughts were growing knotty with confusion.
"Not again."
He had met Fermi on the southern continent and crossed to the ten island kingdoms to return to the Ivory Tower.
"Because the Bekros terminal is the fastest way to jump to the Corona Kingdom."
That much was certain.
"But… it's already been ten days since I arrived here."
"Ten days already?"
"Why can't I get out?"
He was trapped in the village.
"Same as always. Shirone hyung won't leave, so he ends up staying another day. You're dreaming again, right?"
Shirone looked at the boy of about ten.
"Maikon."
He remembered. The son of the couple who'd fed him when he first arrived in Arar Village.
"Me?"
"Yeah. You always say you don't have time and then end up staying one more day."
Was that so?
"Ah…"
Shirone recalled partying with the villagers past midnight the night before.
Right—torches brightening the night, the sizzling smell of fish, alcohol and feasts, laughter and loud voices.
Everything was vivid.
"Puhahaha! You're a cheerful one. I thought mages were cold and taciturn."
Village chief Begpa thrust a beer mug at him.
"Ah, not at all. When it's time to play, you have to play."
Already drunk, Shirone clinked his mug so hard it sounded like it might break.
"Yeah, right. Even during the world war this village was safe. It's never been invaded."
Begpa always said the same thing when he'd had a drink.
"Do you know what 'Arar' means? It's the onomatopoeia for the god's breath. This place is specially protected by the god Beka."
Shirone humored him.
"Oh wow, really."
"Beka's breath holds a powerful force. It makes waves so we can live, but when it's angry it's sharp as a blade. Even now, there's a place on Mero Cliff that's carved by Beka's breath."
"Yeah. I saw it too. It was amazing. It didn't look like something a person could carve."
"Of course! What have you been listening to until now? That's definitely Beka's breath!"
Shirone didn't believe in superstition, but arguing at a drinking party was pointless.
"Oh, right! I must be drunk." A booming voice said.
"You should be!"
A fat man carrying skewered grilled fish in both hands came along with a beautiful daughter.
"Yaska uncle." The village's best fisherman, a man noted for his strength.
"In Arar you can forget about war! Come on, come on! Eat this and get drunk again!"
When Yaska handed over a skewer, his daughter Lua approached with a wink.
"Hi, Shirone. Looks like you're having fun." Tall like her father, her dark skin taut and lithe like a wild mare.
"Yeah. It's been a while since I felt this relaxed."
Lua was wildly popular in the village, and Yaska liked Shirone.
"Come on, come on, happiness is the best. Why don't you settle here with my daughter?"
"Dad, come on…"
Lua showed no displeasure either.
"What's wrong with that? If it's Shirone, I'd be at ease. He's kind, a mage. And he fixed all the damaged houses, right? With his great magic."
"Oh? So fixing houses means I get married? Shirone, don't worry about it."
Shirone grinned.
"Haha! I don't mind. I like this village a lot. And I don't have any responsibilities now anyway." Yes—everything was over. "Let's forget it all. Fermi will take care of things. The war, the name Yahweh…"
Although he'd turned his back on the world, nothing compared to the exhilaration of laying down humanity's great burden.
"Huh?"
At that point, Shirone first felt a sense of unease about his own memories.
The realm of Yahweh—
He had definitely talked about that with Fermi.
What did I say? He couldn't remember. Did we make a deal? No, that can't be. Yahweh is still—
It lived vividly in Shirone's mind.
"Sipok, Bakji, Ipdo, Gongjin. I can feel them all. I haven't handed any of them to Fermi yet. So why—"
The memories continued.
"Hallariole! Reyaerolla!"
Arar's characteristic folk music swelled and people paired off to dance.
Shirone and Lua took each other's hands and spun.
"Hahaha! Hahahaha!"
The world spun, the alcohol flowed.
"Shirone, this way."
Lua grabbed Shirone's wrist and ran out of the party toward the edge of the white sand.
— — —
Thump, thump—the drumbeat faded into the distance, and the two watched each other's forms reflected in the moonlight.
"Shirone."
Lua's eyes glittered; she suddenly stepped forward and kissed him.
"I like you. I like you."
The people of Arar Village were frank with their feelings.
"Lua—?!"
Amy's face flashed in his mind for a moment, but Shirone pushed her away.
"Sorry. I can't go back."
He didn't want to take a single step into an outside world that promised a dreadful life.
"Here, forever… in Arar Village protected by the god. That's where I'll live."
He pulled Lua close and kissed the eager girl already waiting.
They collapsed on the sand; what little clothing they had came off with a single touch.
Thump, thump—the drums didn't stop all night.
"No!"
Shirone shouted.
"That can't be."
It was his memory, so he had to accept it, but parts of it didn't make sense.
I was with Lua—
The feel of her lips, the touch of her skin, even her scent and the sounds of the scene were clear.
That can't be. I still love Amy. Even if I was drunk… no way.
One thought flashed through his mind.
Memory distortion?
Putting aside Ra Enemi, it wasn't impossible if the manipulator was a mage of mental arts.
But who would do that?
Who could manipulate the mind of the Infinite Mage?
And logically it didn't add up. In my memory I entrusted everything to Fermi. But in reality the realm of Yahweh is with me. That's the core.
It was only a hypothesis, but if it wasn't an inexperienced magician, it was malicious.
Or something else I don't know about—
Maikon shrugged and sighed.
"If only he didn't have this, he'd be a great brother." Usually calm, his furious mornings were oddly out of character.
"Calm down and have breakfast at my place. Eat quickly and then we'll go to Mero Cliff."
"Mero Cliff?"
Maikon pointed to the cliffs along the shore.
"You train there every day, right? You go in the morning and stay until the sun goes down."
Shirone studied the cliff.
'I don't remember this either.'
Memory is erased by nature; to know what was deleted you need to encounter the right keywords.
'More information was deleted than I expected.'
If he'd really been coming here every day without fail, there had to be a reason.
"Maikon, sorry, but today I—"
"I know. You won't eat. You'll say you don't have time, right?" Maikon's smug grin made Shirone look away.
"Right. I don't have time."
Shirone used instantaneous movement and dashed toward the cliff; Maikon's mouth fell open.
"That's amazing…"
He never tired of watching it.
'Here.'
Looking down from the sky, Shirone saw circles of various sizes engraved on the ground.
'Huge. You couldn't draw those circles without measuring from the sky.'
No—those were things you'd only notice from the edge of the universe.
'Perfect.'
The circles the villagers called evidence of the god's breath resembled an angel's halo.
Shirone glanced toward the inland forest.
"Hmm."
His transcendental senses, opened to a ninth sense, hungered for the woods like thirst.
'Right. My body remembers.'
He entered the forest, opened his Spirit Zone, and searched for traces of the past.
'There's something there.'
Among the synesthetic impressions coming through the Spirit Zone, one object stood out as particularly jarring.
At an ordinary tree, Shirone slipped his hand into a hollow and found a notebook.
'It's made of material.'
As a marker, one page was made of heavy metal. Opening the cover, he found dense cipher.
'This is… Shirone Code.'
Childish as it might be, Shirone had created a cipher from his private secrets.
For example, he substituted 'Amy's chest' with the character X, and when decoding it turned into 'unknown.'
Even if a chart were extracted, it could be read by others as things like 'touch' or 'desire,' so it was hard to decode.
'A feeling-based subjective emotional code. I made them when bored instead of keeping a diary…'
In this situation it helped.
"Let's see…"
Shirone decoded a mass of strings at once.
What he found was shocking.
"First: Do NOT extract the chip from the head. May cause death."
He touched his head in panic.
There! A small incision behind his ear.
'They implanted a chip?!'
It was probably true.
If it was a physical device, it didn't rely on mental power. That was how they could manipulate memory.
Who on earth?
He flipped through the notes quickly, but even last night Shirone hadn't gotten this far.
"Wake-up time every day 8:30 a.m. Right—today too."
He continued reading.
"Arar Village escape plan. Time Vibration. Minimum 24-hour amplitude required."
If you vibrate the timeline by 24 hours, you can perceive twelve hours of the past as present.
"Then that's 8:30 p.m. last night. The events and the time in my memory almost match."
Something had happened in that timeframe.
"Looks like I trained here."
Shirone saw records of daily increases in Time Vibration ability.
"When should I execute it?"
Checking the last page, Shirone finally understood what memory he had lost.
"Today."
And right now.
Time Vibration!
A tremendous temporal energy unlike anything before rippled through Shirone's body.